Thumbs up for ultrasonic record cleaning

I think that an examination of this thread will show you a better way. IMO, US is the best way.

I have a record of 60's folk music that looks terrible, grade about 'Good', but that plays NM. That said, I also have a sealed Chopin which is unlistenable, and no US treatment, 40KHz or 80KHz, improves it. US or not? I would say, definitely. But don't expect miracles, and be sure that the machine will meet its specifications: frequency and power.

@alf77,

It would be hard to expand on @terry9 eloquent post except that to ask how committed you are to vinyl and if you’re in it for the long haul. If your answer is, I am & yes, the US cleaning method is a no-brainer.


I’ve been exploring my new filtering system today. Everything runs great, no leaks. It is an extremely nice, effective addition to the process. I’ve been focusing on 3 lps I’ve previously cleaned several times for my initial evaluation.

I’ll just mention two now.....Robyn Ludwick "Out of These Blues". This one has been previously cleaned by 3 different methods. I am a huge proponent of pre-steaming for years and always did it prior to using my AD US cleaner.
I just put it through my US cleaner earlier this week w/o the filtering system and plain distilled water. I just listened again with the filtering system and distilled water with the AD cleaner additive.



(Lyle Lovett "Pontiac"...same history of past/previous cleaning. I’ve listened to these two lps twice this week. Immediately upon putting it on today, I noticed a more spacious sense of a bigger studio, much more involving, more lifelike. This was always an excellent recording in terms of SQ.)


This is for the RL lp...Upon listening, I immediately noticed more inner detail, a more relaxed presentation along with a quieter surface noise. This lp had what I previously thought was inherent, unremoveable surface noise. It just became noticeably quieter. While this isn’t a reference recording, (I’d give it around an 8 for sonics) it is much more enjoyable now.

Looking forward at some point to following the previously mentioned DIY fluids and more pure water.

Have fun!

@Alf- That link you provided is almost a horror show of what not to do in my estimation. Using dish soap- sure it will work, getting it off is another matter- I suppose hot water will work but it isn't necessary to use some detergent with a lot of other chemicals perfumes, etc to clean an LP--
getting the labels wet- yeah, that's not good-
using tap water as a rinse- full of minerals.
My experience buying a lot of used records is that ultrasonic isn't a complete answer but complementary to more basic cleaning. Some I know pre-clean without a record cleaning machine and then pop in the ultrasonic. 
I like the AIVS No. 15 cleaner for deeper cleaning- using it with a pad type applicator, like the Disc Doctor or MoFi makes for a very effective cleaning step. You must rinse this stuff off- I would use distilled water, perhaps a couple steps if doing it manually - with clean cloths. Then into a home brew ultrasonic. 
Some users may go straight into the ultrasonic for kludged up records- but my experience was the best results came from a combination of methods, which you could do on a budget. 
I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to brands- whatever works most effectively, with minimal harm caused to the records. 

I agree with Terry, Whart and Slaw

I’ve been pretty amazed at the difference in cleaning using the US approach. All of my records would have been cleaned at one time or another with a Nitty Gritty vacuum record cleaner and until the popularity of US cleaning vacuum cleaning was probably regarded as state of the art.

But there is no question that using a US method I’m getting my records cleaner and they sound better. If you do a broad web search on ultrasonic record cleaning you’ll get a lot of hits from people who feel the same.

As stated previously, my system is good, but not SOTA and there is no doubt that I’m hearing improvements. And as also stated, US can’t fix a record, but it can certainly get it clean and improve the sound quality.

I’m evolving my cleaning efforts based on feedback in this thread and I think the results continue to improve.

I’m a big fan of US cleaning and it also makes sense to me that the combination of US cleaning along with vacuum cleaning is also a winner, and so I vacuum after I clean, but I have no empirical data to back the claim that it is an improvement. But minimally the vacuuming also dries the records much quicker which I like quite a bit.

I'll be making some additional mods to my cleaning efforts over the next week or two and will add more info then.

Good luck

A little late to the party, but here I am.  My DIY kit came from Amazon today.  I'm a believer.